Beyond the traditional dichotomy between idealized and "monstrous" mothers, the contributions gathered in this volume analyze a wide range of maternal figures in French and Francophone literature of the 20th-21st centuries, and question their purposes within the literary work - from the defense of feminist positions to a therapeutic, even narcissistic, confrontation with the mater genetrix.

Marina Ortrud M. Hertrampf, Universität Passau, Germany.